The eighties decade has witnessed phenomenal growth in amusement parks consisting primarily of water rides, i.e., the water park. Various types of water rides, including water slides, wave pools, activity pools, flume boat rides, river rides and sheet wave generators, have become especially popular. In fact, one or more of these water rides can be found in nearly every amusement or theme park in the country.
Various reasons contribute to the popularity of these water rides. Some rides, like water slides, provide high speed excitement to the user. Other rides, like wave pools, provide extended time in water and increased throughput. Other rides, like sheet wave generators, simulate real water sport activities like surfing.
Generally, many water park enthusiasts desire the thrill of moving at high speeds down a curvilinear slide, such as a water slide, induced by gravity and water flow. Enthusiasts also find other gravity-induced rides, i.e., flume boat rides, to be exciting. The common element found in these rides is that they are gravity induced, i.e., they must begin at a high elevation and end in a lower elevation, and involve high speeds.
The disadvantage of gravity induced rides, however, is the relatively short ride participation time. An average commercial water slide, for example, has a ride duration of only approximately 30 seconds. Likewise, gravity flow river rides have an average ride-time of approximately one to two minutes.
Another disadvantage of the gravity-induced water ride is that only a few riders can participate at any given time. Due to this limitation, participants are likely to have to wait for a long period of time before being able to participate in the water ride. It is desirable, therefore, to develop a thrilling water ride, but also one that has an extended ride participation time and which can be ridden by many riders at the same time so that riders will not have to wait too long to ride it.
Another common attraction found in water parks, which provides extended user enjoyment time, is the wave pool, or any variation thereof, such as an endless river pool. Large wave pools have been installed at considerable expense, especially in areas where accessibility to nearby natural water bodies is limited. These pools provide extended user participation time and increased throughput as a large number of participants can participate at one time. Wave pools, however, are deep water pools which inherently carry an increased risk of drowning, and which are considered by thrill-seeking riders to provide little user excitement.
In contrast to the traditional wave pools, relatively shallow continuous flow or endless river pools have been installed at water parks throughout the country. Though the circuitous nature of the river pool contributes to extended rider time, previous attempts to design these pools have not incorporated high speed movement or high action flow. Previous rides are more like lazy rivers, with various wave forms created on the river course. Though these lazy rivers are sometimes described as action rivers, they are, in effect, "lazy" in that the water moves at a slow pace in the pool. Periodic waves, such as those created in a wave pool, are merely transposed into an endless river pool system.
Though each form of water ride described above has certain specific advantages, none of the rides incorporate the many desirable elements or features found in all of the rides combined. It would be desirable, therefore, to combine the many advantages found in all the rides and to develop a new approach to water ride design.
In the past, the Selection and placement of the water rides within the water park has been merely a function of site typography or designer fancy rather than planned and systematized ride interdependence. Because of the many disadvantages of the water rides discussed above, a planned and systematized approach to water park design would be advantageous. Especially ideal would be a water ride that incorporates all of the desirable advantages, and which allows continuous user enjoyment and increased throughput, as well as being energy-efficient.
With regard to energy efficiency, current water park design requires separate generators for each water ride. The disadvantage of powering each ride separately is that the kinetic energy generated by one ride is ultimately dissipated or absorbed by the ride itself. None of the energy generated by one ride is converted into energy to generate movement for another ride. Therefore, it would be advantageous to connect water rides together so that the kinetic energy generated by one water ride may be converted and transferred to another.
To develop an efficient system approach to water ride design, a new system approach that utilizes energy from one ride to drive another ride is desired. A new system approach to water park design, therefore, is desirable in view of the limitations and disadvantages of previous water park designs.